Re: How do you ruin a crown sheet?

Dennis Tebo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting. I thought that crown sheet failures
> resulted in boiler explosions, apparently that's
> not the case. What situations typically lead to
> boiler explosions?
>
> Dennis

What is your definition of a boiler explosion?

The second photo above resulted in the boiler launching off the frame, which most people would call a boiler explosion. You can see the torn corner of the ashpan still attached, and the nuts going to nowhere that used to attach the mud ring to the waist sheet.

The first photo may have stopped short of the boiler launching, but not by much, if it did. The bag shown is way more than the bag resulting after the Gettysburg incident in 1995, and that sent the three crew members to burn centers, and eventually led to the death of one of them.



This is a photo of another type of explosion called a barrel failure. It has nothing to do with low water, the barrel simply develops a lengthwise crack that goes unnoticed until it grows to the point that the remaining intact length of the barrel can't hold the pressure and simply bursts. Barrel failures were more common in the 19th century, when so called lap seam boilers were common. These boilers were subject to fatigue cracking which more modern butt seam barrels are not. Still, barrel failures can happen. That's the reason that the flues are required to be removed every 1,472 service days. Not because there was anything wrong with the flues, but so the boiler inspector can inspect the inside of the barrel for defects.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2020 03:26PM by Kelly Anderson.